Professor Stephen F. Cohen: Rethinking Putin – a review

I have recently had the pleasure of watching a short presentation by Professor Stephen F. Cohen entitled “Rethinking Putin” which he delivered on the annual Nation cruise on December 2, 2017 (see here for the original Nation Article and original YouTube video). In his short presentation, Professor Cohen does a superb job explaining what Putin is *not* and that includes: (but, please do watch the original video before proceeding).

He is not the man who de-democratized Russia (Elstin and the White House did)

He is not the leader who created corruption and kleptocracy in Russia (Elstin and the White House did)

He is not a criminal leader who ordered the murder of opponents or journalists (no evidence)

He did not order the hacking of the DNC servers (no evidence)

He was not anti-US or anti-West from the get-go (Putin changed over time)

He is not a neo-Soviet leader (he is very critical of Lenin and Stalin)

He is not an aggressive foreign policy leader (he has been a reactive leader)

He is not somehow defined by his years at the KGB.

Professor Cohen ended his talk by suggesting a few things which might form a part of a future honest biography:

As a young and inexperienced leader placed at the helm of a collapsing state:

He rebuilt, stabilized and modernized Russia in a way to prevent future collapses

He had to restore the “vertical” of power: “managed democracy” (i.e. restored order)

He needed a consensual history patching up Czarist, Soviet and post-Soviet eras without imposing one, single, version of history

He needed Western support to modernize the Russian economy

He wanted Russia to be a great power, but not a super-power

He never favored iron-curtain isolationism; he is an internationalist (more European than 90% of Russians, at least in the beginning).

The key thesis is this: Putin began as a pro-Western, European leader and with time he realigned himself with a much more traditional, Russian worldview. He is more in line with Russian voters today.

Professor Cohen concluded by addressing two topics which, I presume, his audience cared deeply about: he said that, contrary to Western propaganda, the so-called ‘anti-gay’ laws in Russia are no different from the laws of 13 US states. Secondly, that “by any reckoning, be it flourishing inside Russia or relations with Israel, by general consent of all, nobody denies this, Jews under Putin in Russia are better off than they had ever been in Russian history. Ever. They have more freedom, less official anti-Semitism, more protection, more official admiration for Israel, more interaction, more freedom to go back and forth”.

This is all very interesting important stuff, especially when delivered to a Left-Liberal-Progressive US audience (with, probably, a high percentage of Jews). Frankly, Professor Cohen’s presentation makes me think about what Galileo might have felt when he made his own “presentations” before the tribunal of Inquisition (Cohen’s articles and books are now also on the modern equivalent of the IndexLibrorum Prohibitorum). In truth, Professor Cohen is simply true to himself: he opposed the crazies during the old Cold War and now he is opposing the same crazies during the new Cold War. His entire life Professor Cohen was a man of truth, courage, and integrity – a peacemaker in the sense of the Beatitudes (Matt 5:9). So while I am not surprised by his courage, I am still immensely impressed by it. Some might think that delivering a short presentation on a cruise-ship is hardly a sign of great courage, but I would vehemently disagree. Yes, nobody would shoot Cohen in the back of the neck like, say, the Soviet ChK-GPU-NKVD would have done, but I submit that these methods of “enforcing” a single official consensus were far less effective than their modern equivalents: the conformity imposition techniques (see: Asch Conformity Experiment) so prevalent in the modern Western society. Just look at the results: there was far more reading and thinking (of any kind) going on in the Soviet society than there is today in the modern AngloZionist Empire (anybody who remembers the bad old USSR will confirm that to you). As one joke puts it: in a dictatorship, you are told to “shut up”, while in a democracy you are encouraged to “keep talking”. QED.

Turning to Professor Cohen’s talking points, numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 are basic facts. Nothing to be debated here – Cohen is plainly setting the factual record straight. Number 5 is much more interesting and controversial. For one thing, we are talking views/intentions, which are hard to judge. Was Putin ever pro-Western? Who knows? Maybe his closest friends know? My own belief is that this question must be looked at in combination of issue #8: Putin’s service in the KGB.

There is still a huge amount of misinformation about the old Soviet KGB in the West. To the average American a “KGB agent” is a guy called Vladimir, with steel gray-blue eyes, who beats up dissidents, steals Western technological secrets, and spies on the wives of politicians (and even beds them). He is a hardcore Communist who dreams about nuking or invading the USA and he speaks with a thick Russian accent. Alternatively, there is Anna Kushchenko (a.k.a. Anna Chapman) – a devious sex doll who seduces Western men into treason. These prototypes are as accurate as James Bond is an accurate representation of MI6. The reality could not be more different.

The Soviet KGB was first and foremost a huge bureaucracy with completely different, and separate, directorates, departments, and sections. Yes, one such Directorate did deal with dissidents and anti-Soviet activists (mainly the 9th Department of the 5th Directorate) but even within this (infamous) 5th Directorate there were some Departments which, in coordination with other KGB Directorates and Departments, dealt with more legitimate tasks such as, for example, the early detection of terrorist organizations (7th Department). Other Directorates of the KGB dealt with economic security (6th Directorate), internal security and counter-intelligence (2nd Directorate) or even protection of officials (9th Directorate).

Putin was an officer (not an “agent” – agents are recruited from outside the KGB!) of the First Main Directorate (PGU) of the KGB: foreign intelligence. Putin himself has recently revealed that he was working inside the most sensitive Department of the PGU, the “Department S” which are “illegals”. This is very important. The PGU was so separate from all the other Directorates of the KGB that it had its own headquarters in the south of Moscow. But even inside the PGU, the Department S was the most secret and separated from all the other PGU Departments (no less than 10). As somebody who has spent many years as an anti-Soviet activist and who has had personal, face to face, dealings with KGB officers (of various Directorates) I can confirm that not only did the KGB as a whole get some of the best and brightest in Russia, but the PGU got the best ones of those and only the very best ones from that select group ever made it to the legendary Department S. Now let’s look at what kind of skill-set was required from PGU officers in general (besides the obvious two: being very bright and very trustworthy).

First and foremost, a PGU officer has to be a top-notch specialist of his area of expertise (in Putin’s case: Germany, of course, but also the rest of Europe and, since Western Europe was – and still is – a US colony, the USA). While Soviet people were told that the West was the enemy, the PGU officers had to understand why and how the West was that enemy.

In practical terms, this implies not only knowing and understanding the official cultural, political, social and economic realities of the enemy’s polity, but also the real power relations inside that polity. Such an understanding is not only useful to approach and evaluate the potential usefulness of each person you interact with, but also to be able to understand in what environment this person has to operate. The notion of PGU officers being bigoted commies is laughable as these men, and women, were very well read (they had unlimited access to all the Western information sources, including anti-Soviet ones, classified reports, and all the anti-Soviet literature imaginable) and they were ultimate realists/pragmatists. Of course, like in any organization, the top leaders were often political appointees and the bureaucrats and counter-intelligence officers were much less sophisticated. But for officers like Putin to really understand the reality of the Western society was a vital skill.

Second, a good PGU officer had to be likable; very, very likable. Being liked by others is also a crucial skill for a good intelligence officer. In practical terms, this means that he/she has to not only understand what makes the other guy tick but how to influence him/her in the right direction. When dealing with ‘illegals’ that also meant being their best friend, confessor, moral support, guide and protector. You can’t do that if people don’t like you. So these intelligence officers are masters of being good friends and companions; they are good listeners and they know a lot about how to make you like them. They also understand exactly what you like to hear, what you want to see and what words and actions place you in a relaxed and trusting mode.

Now combine these two: you have a man who is top notch specialist of the West and who is superbly trained to be liked by Western people. How likely is it that this man had many illusions about the West, to begin with? And what if a man like that did have misgivings – would he have shown them?

My own gut feeling is that this is not very likely at all.

What is far more likely is this: Putin played the “West best’s friend” role for as long as possible and he dumped it when it was clearly not productive any longer. And yes, in doing that he did realign himself to the mainstream Russian public opinion. But that was just a useful side-effect, not the cause or the goal of that realignment.

Look at the Professor Cohen’s points 9-13 above (I would summarize them as “fix Russia”). They all make sense to me, even that “he was a young and inexperienced leader”. There is a huge difference between being a skilled PGU officer and being the man who rules over Russia. And even if Putin did lose some of his illusions, it would have been primarily because the West itself changed a great deal between the 1980s and the 2010s. But Putin must have indeed always known that to implement Cohen’s points 10-13 he needed the West’s help, or, if that was not possible, at least the West’s minimal interference/resistance. But to believe that a man who had full access to the real information about the two Chechen wars would have any kind of illusions left about the West’s real feelings about Russia is profoundly misguided. In fact, anybody living in Russia in the 1990s would have eventually come to the realization that the West wanted all Russians to be slaves, or, more accurately, and in the words of Senator McCain – “gas station” attendants. Putin himself said so when he declared, speaking about the USA, “they don’t want to humiliate us, they want to subjugate us. They want to solve their problems atour expense, they want to subordinate us to their influence“. Putin then added, “nobody in history has ever succeeded in doing this and nobody will ever succeed“. First, I submit that Putin is absolutely correct in his understanding of the West’s goals. Second, I also submit that he did not suddenly “discover” this in 2014. I think that he knew it all along, but began openly saying so after the US-backed coup in the Ukraine. Furthermore, by 2014, Putin had already accomplished points 9-13 and he did not need the West as much anymore.

Now let’s look at points 6 (Putin’s view of the Soviet period), 12 (consensual history) and 14 (Russia as a great power but not a super-power). And again, let’s consider the fact that officers of the PGU had total access to any history books, secret archives, memoirs, etc. and that they were very free to speak in pragmatic analytical terms on all historical subjects with their teachers and colleagues. Here I submit that Putin had no more illusions about the Soviet past then he had about the West. The fact that he referred to the breakup of the Soviet Union (which, let’s remember, happened in a totally undemocratic way!) as a “catastrophe” which was “completely unnecessary” does in no way imply that he was not acutely aware of all the horrors, tragedies, waste, corruption, degradation and general evil of the Soviet regime. All this shows is that he is also aware of the immense victories, achievements, and successes which also are part of the historical record of the Soviet era. Finally, and most importantly, it shows that he realizes what absolute disaster, a cataclysm of truly cosmic proportions the break-up of the Soviet Union represented for all the people of the former USSR and what an absolute nightmare it was for Russia to live a full decade as a subservient colony of Uncle Sam. I am certain that Putin studied enough Hegel to understand that the horrors of the 1990s were the result of the internal contradictions of the Soviet era just as the Soviet era was the result of the internal contradictions of Czarist Russia. In plain English, this means that he fully understood the inherent dangers of empire and that he decided, along with the vast majority of Russians, that Russia ought to never become an empire again. A strong, respected and sovereign country? Yes. But an empire? Never again. No way!

This fundamental conclusion is also the key to Putin’s foreign policy: it is “reactive” by nature simply because it only acts in response to when (and what) something affects Russia. You could say that all “normal” nations are “reactive” because they have no business doing otherwise. Getting involved everywhere, in every fight or conflict, is what empires based on messianic ideologies do, not normal countries regardless of how big or powerful they are. For all the sick and paranoid hallucinations of Western Russophobes about a “resurgent Russia” the reality is that Russian diplomats have often mentioned what the goals of Russian foreign policies truly are: to turn enemies into neutrals, neutrals into partners, partners into friends and friends into allies. And this is why Professor Cohen is absolutely correct, Putin is no isolationist at all – he wants a new, multi-polar, international order of sovereign countries; not because he is a naïve wide-eyed idealist, but because this is what is pragmatically good for Russia and her people. You could say that Putin is a patriotic internationalist.

And now to the homosexuals and Jews. First, both assertions made by Professor Cohen are correct: homosexuals and Jews are doing great in modern Russia. I would even agree that they are doing better than ever before. Of course, both Professor Cohen and I are being factual and very superficial when we say that. And since I discussed both of these topics in some detail in the past (see here and here) I won’t discuss them here. Rather, I would simply state that in both cases we are talking about a rather small minority of whose treatment is, for some reason or other, considered as THE measure of humanity, kindness, civilization, and modernity in the West. Well, okay, to each his own. If in the West, the treatment of these two minorities is The One And Only Most Important Topic In The Universe – fine. I personally don’t care much (especially since I don’t feel that I owe any special consideration to either one of them). This being said, I would also claim that Putin’s number one concern is also not for any specific minority. However, and that is where this is indeed very interesting, his concern for the majority does not at all imply any kind of disregard or disrespect for the fundamental freedoms and rights of the minorities but includes his concern for all minorities (and, in this case, not just two minorities which are treated as “more equal than others”).

This is where various right-wingers and assorted Alt-Righters completely “lose” Putin. The very same Putin who told an assembly of Orthodox Jews in Moscow that 80-85% of Bolshevik leaders were Jews (see subtitled video here), the same Putin who crushed the (overwhelmingly Jewish) oligarchs of the Eltsin era as soon as he came to power, and the same Putin who completely ignored all the hysterics of Bibi Netanyahu about the Russian role in Syria is also the same Putin who went out of his way to protect Russian Jews inside Russia and who considers that Jews and Russians are forever joined in their common memory of the horrors of WWII.

[Sidebar: I personally wish that Russia would denounce Israel for what it is, an illegitimate racist rogue state hell-bent on genocide and expansion, but I don’t have relatives there. Neither am I the President of a country with very strong ties to the Russian-speaking Jewish communities worldwide. In my opinion, I am accountable to nobody else but my conscience and God, whereas Putin is accountable to those who elected him and still support him].

Guilt by association, the punishment of all for the actions of some, scapegoating, the vicious persecution of minorities in the name of some ideal – this has all been tried in the past, both in Russia and in the West. The Nazis did that and so did the Soviets. And both the Nazis and the Soviets inflicted untold horrors upon the many peoples of the Soviet Union and beyond. Putin is acutely aware of the dangers of nationalism, just as much as he is aware of the dangers of imperialism, and he said so many times: Russia cannot afford any more nationalistic conflicts as they almost completely destroyed Russia in the 1990s. Just look at modern Ukraine and you will see what a Russia torn apart by nationalist ideologies could have looked like had Putin not cracked down, hard, on various nationalists (including and mostly Russian ones).

Far from catering to (an admittedly powerful) Jewish lobby in Russia, Putin is, in fact, trying to assemble as many different peoples and minorities as possible to his project of a New Russia; and that project includes Russian Jews, not only for the sake of these Jews, but mainly for the sake of Russia. The same goes for another crucial minority in Russia – Muslims. They also very much form a key part of the project Putin has for Russia. Of course, racists, nationalists and other less than bright folks in Russia will still dream about expelling all Jews (or Muslims) from Russia. Simply put – that ain’t happening (for one thing this would be physically impossible) and Putin and those who support him will fight such projects with every legal tool at their disposal. Here again, you could say that Putin is a patriotic internationalist.

In the meanwhile, the West is still stuck in its old, ideological ways: imperialism, nationalism and messianic exclusivism on one hand, and a complete surrender to post-modernism, cultural self-hatred, petty minority politics and moral relativism on the other. It is, therefore, no surprise whatsoever that both mainstream camps in the West completely misread Putin and can’t figure out what he is up to.

Professor Cohen is right: the real Putin has absolutely nothing, nothing at all, in common with the pseudo-Putin the Western media presents to its infinitely gullible and zombified audience. Alas, nobody will listen to Cohen, at least not until the regime in Washington DC and the power structure which supports it, and whose interests it represents, come crashing down. But I do believe that Professor Cohen will eventually go down in history as the most intellectually honest and courageous Russia expert in the USA.

The Essential Saker II: Civilizational Choices and Geopolitics / The Russian challenge to the hegemony of the AngloZionist Empire

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply

Click here to get more info on formatting

(1) Leave the name field empty if you want to post as Anonymous. It's preferable that you choose a name so it becomes clear who said what. E-mail address is not mandatory either. The website automatically checks for spam. Please refer to our moderation policies for more details. We check to make sure that no comment is mistakenly marked as spam. This takes time and effort, so please be patient until your comment appears. Thanks.

(2) 10 replies to a comment are the maximum.

(3) Here are formating examples which you can use in your writing:
<b>bold text</b> results in bold text
<i>italic text</i> results in italic text
(You can also combine two formating tags with each other, for example to get bold-italic text.)
<em>emphasized text</em> results in emphasized text
<strong>strong text</strong> results in strong text
<q>a quote text</q> results in a quote text (quotation marks are added automatically)
<cite>a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited</cite> results in:a phrase or a block of text that needs to be cited
<blockquote>a heavier version of quoting a block of text...</blockquote> results in:

a heavier version of quoting a block of text that can span several lines. Use these possibilities appropriately. They are meant to help you create and follow the discussions in a better way. They can assist in grasping the content value of a comment more quickly.

and last but not least:
<a href=''http://link-address.com''>Name of your link</a> results in Name of your link

(4)No need to use this special character in between paragraphs:&nbsp;You do not need it anymore. Just write as you like and your paragraphs will be separated.The "Live Preview" appears automatically when you start typing below the text area and it will show you how your comment will look like before you send it.

(5) If you now think that this is too confusing then just ignore the code above and write as you like.

Putin sure was and still is the right man for Russia at the right time.

Let’s hope he can also use his knowledge, wisdom, analysis and good intentions to be the right man for the world at this dreadfully dangerous time for the world.

Can he keep driving the neocons in the USA, the banking oligarchs and aristocratic globalists in Wall Street, London and Western Europe, the Zionists in Israel, the Wahhabi Saudis, the nationalist neo-Nazis in Ukraine and the Baltic states – all crazy with frustration and impotent rage til they all just give up their megalomaniac and ideological lunacies and let humanity move into the future in peace and fairness?

God will protect Russia because most Russians are sincerely respectful of God.
Russians are not perfect but they are probably the most Christian People in the world today.
They have been blessed by God and as long as they do not give up in their respect of God, His blessings on Russia are assured.

“”Where are other world leaders to give him a hand?””
The Russian people are approving what Putin does (60%-80%)
Are there people of other nations of western world who are “really” interested
in peace and fairness so that they elect their leaders accordingly?
So many wars have been fought (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria ecc.ecc.) but the people of western world did not show that much of an interest in them .

If the people of the western world would get (and understand) the message of many alternative media outlets, lots of them probably would try to vote for leaders who are promoting peace and fairness. Thanks to propaganda, fear mongering and insufficient time to acquire valuable knowledge, very few are able to see through the game that’s being played. Lots of people feel that they’re being fooled by politicians, but most aren’t able to articulate this feeling due to their lack of impartial information. It takes time and effort to understand in which way everything is interconnected. Sometimes people are so “mindless” to go out for a drink after a stressful day. It’s not that easy to teach someone who’s looking for distraction from the daily routine or someone who’s trying to make ends meet. Another factor is that people are connected to each other on different levels. Relatives, friends and colleagues are closer than someone at the other side of the globe. It’s quite easy to blame people for their lack of knowledge, but it’s difficult to teach them.

Or how about the Russians discover feasible time travel and put Putin on a endless time loop, basically making him eternal for ever?

Just for fun there could be lots of analog clocks, with twelve pictures of Putin’s face that sets off an loud “DING!” every time he got looped. We’d have it installed in every western nation and every russophobes and deep state operatives homes.

No angry mob hanging them in lamp posts, no trials for treason, no nothing, just that big fat alarm clock constantly reminding them that they can never get rid of Putin.

“What is far more likely is this: Putin played the “West best’s friend” role for as long as possible and he dumped it when it was clearly not productive any longer. And yes, in doing that he did realign himself to the mainstream Russian public opinion. But that was just a useful side-effect, not the cause or the goal of that realignment.”

.I think its far more likely that thesaker is projecting his own hatred of the west onto Putin.

This is a good example of Dubya-“thinking”: you are either with us or against us, and “with us” means unconditionally, uncritically, fanatically. In reality, I am no more anti-Western than I ever was anti-Russian. You either never read what I write, or never understood it. I suggest you get your basic facts first, use your head to try to make sense of them second and, after that, if you think that you have something to say, think about what you write before posting it here.
The Saker

I remember when I lived in Yugoslavia until I was in my early 20s – most people (i.e. I) genuinely believed America was there waiting to help organize our economy etc in good faith once Berlin Wall comes down etc.
I think Eastern Europeans (at least what I remember from my life there ) generally trust people (even strangers) much more than Anglosheple do (who tend to be pretty cynical and Machiavelian.
I can imagine Putin trusted Anglo-Saxon countries much more than he should have done. I did too. It took me about a decade at least to understand how much of what I thought was true about UK/US was actually predatory propaganda I should have never trusted. I gave far too many benefits of the doubt
Psychopaths (and psychopathic cultures) are charming but predatory. Because the way they lie, cheat, steal, kill etc is very un-intuitive to normal people, their strategy of lies can work for a while. But once you figure them out – their dirty tricks don’t work any more

Do you know if there is a possibility to download the show without the commercial breaks? I can’t stand advertisements and there is just no way I will ever listen to anything, no matter how otherwise interesting, if it is interspersed with ads.
Thank you!
The Saker

“What is the difference between former KGB Stasi plus behaviour …… and present CIA MI6 plus behaviour over the last 70 years ?

Not much”

On the contrary, that difference is huge. The KGB hunted down the Ukronazis well into the 1950s; Stasi put an end to the Zionazi hub of subversion in West Berlin (the West had no business pestering the city — it was liberated by the Soviet Red Army). CIA and MI6, by contrast, are fully committed to global corporate mayhem and murder.

Totally agree with you Nussi,
If we look at the main fact, which is the US’s intention to nuke the USSR right after the WWII, the fact hardly ever mentioned in the Western media (never), we can safely conclude who the aggressor was. Hence we can safely conclude the the KGB, contrary to popular belief in the West was a defensive institution whose job was defending their Socialist country.

The Western Oligarchy is demonizing Putin with good reason. His KGB background really gives extraordinary credibility to the concept “Russian intelligence” — another rather insulting difference to Zionazi from all walks of life.

Well said, Nussiminen. Besides, one cannot meaningfully talk about Russian history without mentioning the subversion of Russia – whether under the Czars or under socialism – by Western agents and saboteurs. (e.g. Trotskyites) The latter also in East Germany. See for instance https://sascha313.wordpress.com/ about that.

Right-wingers, the Western/Nazi propaganda machine, and Alt-Righters typically leave out that there were many well-meaning, real socialist, communist, Jews among the Bolsheviks.

Interesting response ….. Much research demonstrates we were as ugly in the west as any where and even historically (going back centuries …. ) the power brokers were mostly nasty folk as power corrupts …..

Protecting ones nation was a normal behaviour of all “secret services” Honourable really….. so called protecting the ….. national interest …. such a holistic term and so …. neutral in souund and interpretation..

William Blums Book “Killing Hope” – (former CIA chap is a good place to read) and there are many others exposing secret service behaviour ….

Not much difference between CIA and MI6 behaviour and KGB Stasi …. Its just the west is so good at portraying its side as ….the nice guys …. and them as the bad guys ….. who ever them are ….

By understanding nationalism and identity politics one sees the bigger picture where ever one lives ….. Powerful nations do what is necessary to protect their borders….. taking lives can be a matter of course….. The world is not black and white …. But grey everywhere ….. A sordid sad grey …. everywhere and going back centuries ….

-Ugh, I hate people who keep mixing up EU with Europe… EU is not the same European.. Europe is a continent that Russia is in, Europe is Russias history, culture, race, religion.. EU is just a temporary sociopolitical structure inside of Europe.

Simply put – that ain’t happening (for one thing this would be physically impossible)

-Not that I’m advocating deporting all Jews and Muslims, but why would that be physically impossible? It wasn’t physically impossible to deport 3+ million Germans after ww2. IT wasn’t physically impossible to deport Jews from over 100 countries over history. It wasn’t impossible for Stalin to deport 1.5 million to Siberia..

My point being that clearly it is very physically possible and has been done over and over both in old history and recent history, it is a fairly common practice.

A better way of would say that “It-is currently not politically feasible in the world”

1) definition: what is a Jew or a Muslim? In *legal* terms? Is that a self-described identity? Or does the law have to define it? What about, say, folks like the Karaites, or the Nation of Islam, or the Bahai? What about baptized Jews or Muslims? How about baptized but not practicing? How about converts to Judaism and/or Islam, etc. etc. etc.

2) laws would have to be passed in the Russian Parliament and such laws would, even if considered, be anti-Constitutional.

3) you would have a civil war on your hands; that kind of crazy shit can only happen in dictatorships and/or in wartime.

4) that kind of policies are repugnant and, frankly, look insane to a country which has been multi-ethnic and multi-confessional during its entire history

5) who would be in charge of the ethnic cleansing? the police and security forces would probably refuse to obey, even less so the armed forces.

Basically, this is a total pipe-dream that can only be contemplated by people who know nothing about Russia. The fact that Stalin did exactly that is still very vivid in the memory of Russians and even pro-Stalin people admit that this was both shameful and stupid. There is no constituency in Russia for that kind of policies or ideology and the overwhelming majority of Russians would oppose that with all the determination possible.

6) Why should Muslims be expelled from Russia?
They constitute part of the Russian social fabric. This has been so for centuries,
this is so now, and will be so in the future. They helped build up Russia, they bled
and fought for it. They deserve to be part of Russia.

Daniella’s reasoning is the one of Westerners where Immigrants are seen asleaches while totally neglecting their input and contribution to the host society.

The Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberian Khanates all existed before Russian conquest, so the people conquered are not immigrants (at least to Russia). And with several centuries of intermarriage, Napolean’s alleged comment of “Scratch a Russian, find a Tatar” has a lot of truth.

Thanks for the response, although “Immigrant is the appropriate word.” adds more to the confusion.

With my question I wanted to get some more detailed information about your usage of the term immigrant. It seems this thread may contain several misunderstandings.

1. The statement of Daniella “A better way of would say that “It-is currently not politically feasible in the world”” can be interpreted in two different ways: (1) The wishful thinking of some right-winger or (2) the realistic view of someone observing tendencies of vilifying Muslims in many countries and assuming that it still needs a while for right-wingers to achieve their wet dream.

2. RATM correctly points out that Muslims are stereotyped as evil in the West (by right-wingers and by MSM playing along with looking for a scapegoat to distract from other political problems).

3. Your own short comment doesn’t specifically mention the group you’re referring to: (1) the Muslims living in the Russian Federation or (2) the Muslim immigrants of the West.

Regarding the immigrants in the West nowadays you often read in forums the terms invaders or economic refugees. That’s why I asked for some clarification.

I believe in freedom. I believe in every human being’s Creator Given right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Very, very, very high on the list of the freedoms I think every human being should have is the right to form and hold their own opinions with regard to Spirituality and Religion.

Like with any right, there are limits to this. Of course one can’t commit crimes in the name of religion. One can’t kill or otherwise harm other human beings. One can’t steal in the name of religion, etc etc, etc. And beyond that, since I believe everyone has a right of freedom to believe what they want to believe, I don’t believe that people or a group of people can harrass, discriminate or in other way try to force someone to their beliefs.

But, if a group of people want to get together and discuss their own ideas about spirituality or to pray to any super-natural being whom they all believe exists, then I’m fine with that. And I’d be opposed to any moves to stop that.

Of course, one can easily find religious groups who preach hatred towards others because of the beliefs of others, and that is something that needs to be banned or restricted. Note, where I live, its mostly Christians who’d get raided under such a policy.

Since Judaism, Islam and Christianity are Abrahamic religions, the Ten Commandments apply to all of them. (I don’t know about Buddhism and Hinduism and if they’ve got something similar.) With that said, there shouldn’t be any further questions concerning “crimes committed in the name of religion”.

Lots of atheists, feminists and LGBT crowds harass others and try to force their beliefs upon everyone (CSD for example).

Saker,
I do not think you can even call it a pipe dream. It is impossible. I remember reading Russian books (in my young days) dealing with the “Reds, right after the revolution, which means in the 1920’s” attempt to pacify the Muslims in the south of SU and trying to make Communists out of them. It was bloody, just like in the rest of the USSR. Eventually the Communists gave up, because they realized that they cannot holocaust those populations.
So to help some people posting here, the Muslims belong there, therefore any talk of expelling them (where) from their lands is out of the question.
Now, Russia since it’s beginnings embraced the principles of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium if you want to call it that way), which was embracing the populations within. Unlike some other countries we know, which established themselves on the ashes and bones of the native peoples.

Putin has been anti-bully, anti-mafia, anti-‘the winner takes all’ since his early childhood. But for anyone not born in the West, no matter how good his instincts are, how precise his intuition is tuned, how well-read he his on the subject, the sheer scale, depth and utter devastation the cradle to grave full-spectrum indoctrination & mind control protocols the inhabitants of the vast goylands of the West have been subjected to over dozens of generations by its land lords, the Jewish Mafia, is simply unfathomable.

It took Putin the better part of a decade to realize that the situation of the West is not only hopeless, but beyond a shadow of a doubt, irreversibly hopeless.

Nonetheless, Putin is not anti-West, he is, and always has been, like all mature man and women, anti-mafia.

“He is not somehow defined by his years at the KGB.”

Of course, he is. In the good sense. Without comprehensive inside knowledge of the inner workings of organized crime syndicates, mafia organizations, deep states networks, secret societies, intel services… we wouldn’t even talk about Putin today. He would have been disappeared long ago.

A few years ago there was a crazy scandal at the Association of Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies where a scholarship Cohen offered to fund in Russia studies was rejected because of his views on Ukraine. Fortunately, the membership of the association overturned the decision. The details are discussed in this article and its links:

Firstly, Cohen’s short video is important, very important for all Americans to absorb.
Secondly, Saker’s escort through the thoughts and comments of Cohen is excellent.

We have two authorities on the Russian reality, viewed through the career as leader of Vladimir Putin. Cohen has no Western peer. Saker is a force of intellectual pursuit relevant to Russia and the last two decades of Russian development.

Teamed in this presentation, we have a powerful resource to reference as we examine the next six years of Putin, the Eurasian development, the geopolitical devolution of the Hegemon, Ukraine, Donbass, Syria, Iran, North Korea, the Double Helix of China-Russia, and Peace, War, BRICS, the nuclear weapons race, Energy, Space, Cyber Warfare, anti-terrorism, Christianity vs Wahabbism, Orthodox Christianity vs Satanism, and the highly inflammable InfoWars led by espionage agencies of the West.

Download this article. Keep it close. Send links to all your contacts. Spread it on all social media.

One of the great achievements of the Russians seems to be in the development of defensive military technologies. Although I’m a total novice in the business of war I am reading with increasing interest that a country can defend it’s airspace from most conceivable threats with Russia’s S400 for example.
This is game changing technology. Syria appears to be gaining control of it’s airspace.
Similarly, The Saker has written of the near redundancy of Naval battle groups due to missile technology combined with communication and counter communications technologies [sorry I don’t know the terminology].
If I’m not over reading the trend, a country which has good relations with Russia can or will one day be able to defend itself against any physical weapon an enemy might use against it.
Another observation is what can be achieved within a single generation when a country’s leaders are faithful to their people’s welfare and not to their bankers’.
And the sense is we’ve only begun to see the contribution Russia will play in peacemaking and in reminding the west of the goodness of Christianity.

Amen. A very balanced and realistic assessment of Putin. I have admired professor Cohen for many years, and his courage in speaking out a very unique point of view about Russia in a country (USA) with about zero understanding of same.

“They have more freedom, less official anti-Semitism, more protection, more official admiration for Israel, more interaction, more freedom to go back and forth”.

No mention of the Palestinians is forthcoming from the ‘kind and gentle’ Cohen. Cohen continues to support the Racist Zionist Imperialist – Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinian people from their Homeland.

Cohen is just one more Land Thief (puppet of the Rothschilds).

One more time: for the ‘expert’ ‘professor’ Cohen, *I Am Not An Anti-Semite; I Like Arabs.*

Yes, in Russia, the Media actually express less -anti-Semitism-, they support Putin and the other Russian Leadership’s support of Syria, and their good relations with Iran, Iraq, (ever more independent of the imperialists), and Hezbollah. Russian President Vladimir Putin is quite popular amongst the Semites, of the various Mid-Eastern nations (according to articles and polls – too numerous to cite). He is less popular with the Land Thieves (who continue their efforts to Overthrow Putin, and his somewhat independent government).

Once more, we read a seemingly reasonable article. Ant then… and then… and then… – Comes the Zinger.

The Number 1 Crime – being committed today:
(and there are many crimes being committed today).

The Major Crime being committed today, and around which all the lesser crimes revolve, is the Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinian People by the – pay attention here: Racist Anti-Semitic Zionist Land Thieves (who are supported by most of their Jewish brethren (not all). The crime is one of great Moral Depravity, hypocrisy and cynicism, and of outright military police-state repression against a sweet People, who are the final victims of World War II. The greatest Anti-Semites on the planet, are the Rothschilds, and their Land Thieves gauletiers.

Need this -also ‘so-called’ Professor suggest a perusal of the imperialist “Balfour Declaration”?

This Earth and its people sink or swim with the fate of the Palestinians. If they die…

As Anarchist Leader, Durruti, said, and I paraphrase, -We are not afraid to rebuild from the ruins.

In 1995 I had a conversion with a Russian lady of quality, who openly admitted that it remained to be seen if the Russian Federation could survive in it’s present form, or if it would break up. How did such a situation arise ?

In 1989 the Warsaw Pact was terminated, while NATO was not, which should have been a severe warning to Russia. Yes, Gorbachov presided over the break up of the Soviet Union and consented to German unification, for which he was severely criticized, with many regarding him as a Western puppet. Maybe he was, maybe he was not. However, he was at the head of the USSR when it was experiencing huge economic problems, it’s centralized system being one of it’s chief problems. The USSR did break up, and personally I believe this was to the advantage of the Russian Federation, which is still the largest country in the world. What was not to Russia’s advantage was that 25 million Russian’s ended up residing outside Russia, in the former Soviet republics. However, that was overall a secondary problem, as nobody prevented them from returning to Russia.

The Russian Federation was taken over by Boris Yeltsin. He, too, is accused of being a Western asset. Maybe he was, maybe he was not. What is perfectly clear is that he was incompetent. He overnight transformed a centralized economic system into a liberal entity of the type which existed in Europe in the second half of the 18th century and during the 19th. Result ? Russia was looted of 100 billion dollars a year by Western bankers, corporations and domestic oligarchs. Poverty was rife. It faced dissolution. It was then that patriotic forces inside Russia stepped in. The were made up of the security services, military, academia and some politicians. Yeltsin was given an offer: If he handed power to Putin, he would not be prosecuted. Yeltsin wisely agreed. The deal was kept. When Yeltsin died, Putin attended his funeral, wisely stating that history will make the final judgement on Yeltsin.

When Putin assumed power, the West certainly underestimated him. Yes, the West knew he was ex KGB. It’s questionable if they grasped that he was in the upper echelons of the KGB, and the fact that he was a highly competent KGB officer, with a degree in law and a Phd in economics. He also studied chemistry, which he never finished. The West took it for granted that Russia was too weak to recover and that Putin could not do much. Never before was a conclusion more falsely drawn. Putin did precisely what the West did not think he was capable of doing. He drastically reduced corruption. He prevented the breakup of the country. He laid foundations for the the further industrialization of the country. He professionalized the military, providing it with new high tech, some of which surpasses that of NATO. He has brought Russia back to the world stage. He constructed an economic partnership with China, the two creating the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation organization and the Eurasian Economic Union, which are a nightmare for Wall Street, especially since both Russia and China plan to introduce gold backed currencies.

And the US ? It’s still following it’s old plans of breaking up Russia, in conjunction with the European elite. Russia was provoked in Georgia ? It responded and won. Russian military efficiency was a surprise to NATO. It was provoked in Ukraine. It responded and won. Yes, NATO did grab Kiev, while Putin grabbed back the Crimea, preventing NATO from grabbing the naval base of Sevastopol. In Crimea NATO got a second shock. It sent some of it’s best special forces for a sneak attack against Sevastopol. They were joined by Ukrainian special forces. Both were surrounded by Russian Spetsnats, whom Putin sent in as a response. There was no fighting. The Russians opened a corridor, permitting both NATO and Ukrainian troops to leave. NATO was in a state of shock, to put it mildly. The US then provoked Russia in Syria. Putin again responded, with NATO getting an additional shock by the performance of Russian high tech and combat pilots.

The West responded with a campaign of vilification directed against Putin. All it did was raise his popularity, both inside Russia and in the world. The propaganda methods used were both absurd and hilarious, achieving opposite effects.

Result of all of this ? Both Russia and China are on the rise, while both the US and EU are looking into financial and economic calamities. What was planned for Russia ended up being experienced by the US and EU.

There have been theories in the West that the break up of the Soviet Union was one gigantic Russian psy ops, a trap for the West, with the West being encouraged to keep on NATO and fight unnecessary wars and in the process ruin itself financially. Theoretically anything is possible, but I don’t think the Russians ever thought of going that far. The break up of the Soviet Union was perhaps the best thing which could have happened to Russia. It was not any more financially overburdened. It turned slowly, especially after Putin came to power, to its own resources. Russia has no imperial aspirations. It’s military budget is proof of this, being many times smaller than that of the US, being concentrated on defense. The chief Russian aim is to preserve the Russian Federation and to build up it’s infrastructure. Its the largest country in the world, and to the Russian leadership that is enough. It is the US which is playing Imperial Rome and paying the price, both politically and financially. Russia is the one who is benefiting from this foolish US policy.

I still don’t think the undeniable full truth about the “elephant in the room” has been tackled, despite many worthwhile attempts on this web site.

An zealous international collective fundamentally built on the primacy of exceptionalism, and separation from the remainder of humanity, using an operational procedure manual as their primary ‘religious‘ documents, detailing how to subvert any/all society’s control infrastructures/institutions by negative sum gain gaming the system, to horde all the rights and enforce all their common responsibilities onto a slave class, considered as ‘beasts‘ is obviously incompatible with a sustainable (non-slave) society, and one can extrapolate to, incompatible with a sustainable planet!

How can it be dealt with to continue to ‘allowed’ but not eventually destabilize and unfairly distribute the wealth/rights/control to their collective adherents?

For those that know enough of the (less outlandishly subjective and one-sided) history, and have even a minimal understanding of the ideology, i.e. Kol Nidre (see http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9443-kol-nidre ), it is very difficult to understand why this type of ideology is NOT illegal in just societies?!
This is a completely unbiased pragmatic assessment; it is simply ultimately NOT SUSTAINABLE!

The crimes committed over the past 100 years, and continuing to be committed in the Palestinian lands today, are amongst the worst crimes against humanity of all time; is there disagreement about that?

So, back to Putin, we see this extraordinary man (most of the community here, by my reckoning, already know this and the fundamental ridiculousness of the prevalent ‘western’ narratives), based on the assessment of the trend of his outcomes to date.He must know of this obvious challenge.
So, if he able to get to it, it might be very interesting to see how he addresses it.

In Russia, the Judo-communists
exterminated close to 100 million.
(There wouldn’t have been WW2
without Judo-communism.)

The poor old Palestinians haven’t
seen the worst of it yet. None of
of those 100 million or so dead
Russians or Ukrainians ever saw
a friendly camera pointed at them.

As it happens, someone also
mentioned Ukraine – not exactly
a subject Putin would want to
write home about.

Funny enough, Comrade Stalin,
in his time, attained a somewhat
better mutual understanding
with the Ukrainian nationalists
with his amnesty for ex-fighters
than Comrade Putin managed
today – in comparable terms.

how pathetic
“Revealed: Russian hackers infiltrated the voter registration rolls of multiple states before the presidential election
The voter registration rolls in 21 states were targeted by Russian hackers before the 2016 presidential election, according to a new report
Jeanette Manfra, head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, told NBC the Russians only successfully infiltrated a few of those states
It’s not believed that the Russians were able to alter the voter rolls
However, the fact that they were able to breach the rolls in multiple states raises concerns about the upcoming 2018 midterm elections
By Ashley Collman For Dailymail.com

PUBLISHED: 16:21, 8 February 2018 | UPDATED: 16:47, 8 February 2018

Jeanette Manfra, head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, spoke with NBC News and said that of the states targeted, the Russians were able to gain access to the rolls of a ‘small number’.

The fear is that if hackers can get into the voter registration rolls, they can remove voters, causing chaos on election day and potentially swinging elections.”

please never again post something from UK media,
because all they write is spin & lies.

don’t give them the attention they want. don’t spread their
lies. ignore them and they will falter and go away.

i personally wouldn’t even trust a british news site regarding
the weather forecast for tomorrow. enough said.

mod-to note: Your concerns are both understandable and appreciated. However, how are these “spins and lies” to be exposed and countered with forthright and truthful argument if they remain hidden? My opinion is to let them be exposed and corrected. The truth will always prevail.

Mods,
I completely agree that lies & spins should be exposed,
but all to a reasonable extend.

For instance, if a commenter comes in and accuses Putin of selling
out Donbass/Syria and is proven wrong for the 10th time and yet
that person refuses to change their line of thinking and continues to make
the same claim again and again, it clearly shows he is a paid propagandist
and honestly it even gets tiresome to scroll over such comments.
Twilights were notoriously long worded. I would ban such commenters.

Most propagandist try to get people to engage into their narrative,
so that they can further ‘mold’ the people’s thinking.
Or irrelevant topics (in this case:”Russian hackers”) are pushed to
muddy the minds and/or keep minds occupied with pure BS.
I honestly get the shivers when I see stories about “russian hackers”.
I skip them immediately. So not worth spending any time on it. That is all
for US internal consumption, and what the US elites force-feed their braindead
& ignorant populace is (for me at least) unimportant.

This should explain my stance. I was polite and pleaded for JJ to at least
rethink re-posting UK sites. Those are pure ‘rubbish’ (to use their expression).

Thanks for support mod…point of here is surely to continue to expose the “war” against Russia and I trust the moderators to check that the moderation policies will be complied with and if there is a problem they will contact me…..rather than complying with individual posters sense of aggrieved sensibilities.

@RATM “personally wouldn’t even trust a British news site regarding the weather forecast for tomorrow.” Being British I would naturally be mistrustful of any forecast for our notoriously unpredictable weather — but I would confidently rely on our Beeb to dutifully toe an A-Z-C propaganda line after the BBC Governors were publicly reprimanded and politically corrected by our former prime minister TB.Liar (who today “stands bestriding the world like a colossus” — director in House of Rothschild, European director of Rothschild arms company Carlisle, and agent of Rothschild bank Goldmann-Sachs).

I can assure you with 100% certainty, that if the traffic was coming from russian adresses, it was not russian…
Any hacker worth its name has a collection of slave machines with traffic going in and out of them, in and out of tor, or even with custom anonimizers (no real hacker believes tor is enough too)…
As such, what infornation do they use to say they are russians?

Funny, the easy fix would be to get rid of ‘voter registration’. Its an out-of-date system these days that is mainly manipulated by the two corporate political parties.

It would be so much simpler if one could just go up to a voting place and show an ID (which one has to do anyways now in much of the USA) and then vote. Just have a simple system where you are given the ballot that corresponds to the address the state has on file for you. Don’t need to go to a particular precinct to vote. Just go to any voting center.

The government has database records on all of us. And they are well on their way to turning the state driver’s licenses into a national ID card system. So, why can’t we just show our ID and then vote?

In the USA, the political parties love to play games with this system. Since the Republicans used to always represent the Chamber of Commerce business minority, they hated the idea of everyone voting. And nowadays, the Democrats represent even more so the elites of the 1-percent, so their enthusiasm for everyone voting is dropping. Whenever one party gets control of the machinery, they try to purge the other parties voters.

I suspect one of the reasons why Hillary Clinton was so upset at losing the election was that she thought she’d already stolen it.

As far as I know several US citizens don’t have an ID in the form of a drivers license or anything similar due to the lack of money. That’s part of the game the US parties like to play. Only the haves are permitted to vote.

oh another one
“George W. Bush claims ‘there’s pretty clear evidence Russia meddled’ in the 2016 US presidential election – and says Putin ‘has a chip on his shoulder’ because of the demise of the Soviet Union
Former President George W. Bush gave a talk in Abu Dhabi, UAE on Thursday
During the talk, Bush said that ‘there’s pretty clear evidence that the Russians meddled’ in the 2016 American presidential election
‘Whether they affected the outcome is another question,’ Bush added
Bush went on to say that Russia’s meddling is’ problematic’ since democracy is only good when people trust elections
Said Vladimir Putin has ‘a chip on his shoulder’ because the demise of the Soviet Union troubles him
Bush insisted it was vital for the US to back NATO and other world alliances
By Associated Press
”

“…a rather small minority whose treatment is, for some reason or other, considered as THE measure of humanity, kindness, civilization, and modernity in the West…”

I’m sure the Saker is quite clear why these minorities are so considered.

I think LGBT (if that is the latest acronym) has taken over from human rights in US propaganda against states it thinks disobedient. Human rights is a fine idea codified in the UN charter. The US quite deliberately hijacked it for its own ends. Similarly, LGBT: the US uses the question of LGBT rights to paint its opponents as Bad People. Why do “progressives” or “liberals” fall for it? To feel Virtuous, on the right side of history, enlightened, whatever. It works a treat. (I don’t know what terms best distinguish between traditionalists and followers of the Enlightenment.)

US exploitation does not make the idea of human rights any less persuasive.

As a footnote: if only this irrefutable article and Prof. Cohen’s work could be printed or broadcast in each and every Western media outlet, the risk of war would be vanishingly small.

I suppose the the promotion of homosexuality is not useful for any society. Thus, the promotion of the LGBT group in terms of human right is a weapon to weaken and destroy societies all over the world (the codinome ’empire of chaos’ applies well, here). This LGBT propaganda has been going on for over 40 years in the Third World.

“The left-liberal audience” he is talking too used to be strongly anti-war and pro-peace.

The Nation itself has become a bit weird in the last decade or so. They used to be a strong “left-of-liberal” magazine that was always broke. I read the Nation back in the 1980’s. There was a point where a US Cargo plane got shot down over Nicaragua, exposing the US aid to the Contras that became the Iran-Contra scandal. I was not at all surprised, as I’d been reading in the Nation about these supply lines for months before.

Then, somewhere along the way, the Nation became much less broke. They stopped begging for money at ever possible turn. Ms. van Heuval suddenly started appearing on CNN. And, in the election of 2000, while I was with much of the left supporting Nader against the increasingly conservative Democrats, the Nation was urging me to vote for Al Gore, the former right-wing, pro-nuclear missile, pro-music censorship Congressman from east Tennessee.

Ever since then, the Nation has been odd. In the off years between elections, they still support causes like opposing war. But, then when the elections roll around, they will loudly tell everyone how the solution is to vote Democrat. They also seem to enjoy the common pasttime on what’s left of the left of mainly directing their fire at fellow leftists.

Its hard to imagine what that cruise was like. I never hung out around the sort of ‘lefties’ who can afford winter-time cruise tickets. But, since I’m picturing the same sort of wealthy, fake-liberals that the Democrats now appeal to, and which appear to be the reason that the Nation no longer seems to be as broke as they once were, I suppose that explains the opening line of Ms. van Heuval of “Now for something completely different”.

I really don’t count today’s Democrats as being either “liberal” or “left”. They are now a pro-war crowd that supports bankers and big corporations. I guess the difference between the Nation and the rest of the right-wing Democrats is that there is not a big “Sponsered by Goldman Sachs” banner behind the podium.

Still, thanks for posting Prof. Cohen. I’ve listened to him and read him for a long time, apparently back before Ms. van Heuval became an intern at the Nation. (note the long-time flaw of left organizations that people who need a full paycheck just to survive need not apply). To me, he’s been one of the few on the left who haven’t gone completely nuts in the last few years. Hopefully he got back from the cruise alright and his wife was able to keep the Democrats from throwing him overboard.

I hope Russians don’t feel singled-out when American elites want them all to be ‘gas station attendants’. After all, that’s the same goal they have for a vast majority of Americans.

Look at what they’ve done to the employment opportunities for Americans. All the good jobs are gone. Mr. Paul Craig Roberts consistently looks at the government jobs reports and points out that the only jobs being created are service jobs and health care jobs. And many of those part-time. Heck, Americans can’t even be gas station attendants any more, as that task has been made almost entire self-service and I’d expect the few jobs left will soon be replaced by robots. But I guess they don’t have a robot yet that can scrub the toilets.

The American oligarchs who rule America and who want to rule the world only care about their small group of friends and family. To them, all of the rest of us are just ‘labor costs’ that need to be minimized through reforms that make the labor market ‘more efficient’ up until they replace us all with robots and then leave us to die because they don’t want to divert tax money from their war machine.

When I was growing up a few years after the 1950’s, in America the standard example of “Guilt by Association” was the McCarthy era.

One of the reasons I truly despise Hillary Clinton is that in her personal greed for power and money she’s brought back to America both Red-Baiting (against Bernie Sanders who really just supported Ted Kennedy’s 1980 mainstream Democrat policies) and McCarthy-ism. Anyone who does that to my country deserves my opposition.

Thus, I’ve grown up and lived in a society where the Democratic Party has gone from complete horror and opposition to Sen. McCarthy’s “Guilt By Association” to one where the Democratic Party now wants to investigate, smear and send into internal political exile anyone who’s ever talked to a Russian or read a Russian website.

For myself, I stick to my principles, so since I was taught that McCarthyism was wrong and evil while I was growing up, I now see most Democrats as something to be opposed before these idiots nuke humanity off the face of the earth.

The intention of my comment was to remind people of the manipulative usage of the KGB background. This doesn’t apply to the context it is used in this specific article. Nevertheless in many western countries the KGB is still seen as the evil entity per se. There are hardly any reports in western MSM that don’t remind everyone of this background. According to Robert Parry it’s an attempt at gluing a black hat onto the adversary, whilst trying to depict the “good ones” with white hats (whilst typing I’m instantly reminded at the White Helmets). How many western news outlets remind their audience of the CIA past of George H. W. Bush? Mainly he’s referred to as former US president.

Putin has done what he has thought was right for Russia. I do not doubt that, at all. And fact of the matter is Russia is in a far better position than it was before he took over. I do have Russian, not friends, but acquaintances, that I have an irregular contact with, and they appear to be all Putinistas. (sorry) That he is a former KGB officer, ehhh, that only means he was one of the bright ones, the ones worth spending money on, educating and honing. I dont care much for his alleged billions , he supposedly has stashed away, not at all. He is nationalist in the good old sense he does what he thinks is best for you country. That is good enough for me.
I am a nationalist too, but in the subdued way socialists do it, I do what I think is best for Sweden and try to press that agenda, albeit at far lower level. As little as Vladimir Putin has advocated bringing democracy to brown people, I have done the same in my powers. So on that we are level, he loves his country, I love mine. As long as we do not have an imperialistic perception of the world, we are pretty much on level.
Navigating in troubled waters means you need a good pilot, Putin is one, as is Frau Merkel ( I wonder how they do it in Germany: Ardenauer, Brandt, Kohl, Merkel, WTF. 4 almost successive!!!) , people using common sense ?
I think history will judge Putin as one of the great (Russia had a few too, Peter the Great, Catherina the Great) who with great skill and cunning, brought Russia back on the scene.
I as a Swede, do not regard Vladimir Putin as an enemy, merely as an opponent that you must negotiate with, to get some good deals done, and if both parties to that deal are satisfied, all went well.

Putin was interested in KGB when he was still in school. He was told to study law and then come back. I think of him as a patriot, not a nationalist. There is a difference. He is truly a good pilot and we need one in this troubled country.

Interesting name “Den Store Enzo” , you undobtedtly have some connection to Scandinavia, although Mods here at The Saker has a Dim view on other commenters trying to state origin of fellow commenters, I find it relevant because it tells where other peoples reference sphere is.
“Troubled country” sure Russia has troubles, but Russia from time back has come a long way. And we in Europe have not achieved much the last 10 years, growth has not been impressive, Denmark is trying to dismantle its welfare society, lead on by Blairist Socialdemocrats (yuuuck!!!) and a revolting Venstre, the egoist party.
The only ones who have benefitted are us with property, bought almost 2 decades ago, worth has tripled, us with private pension schemes worth millions, the rest- well not so much to cheer.
We have a saying in Danish “Fanden hytter sine” roughly it means ” The Devil embraces his own” altogether true, unfortunately.

I knew you would understand my signature. It has a double meaning. I grew up in Sweden.

Everything is going backwards in Scandinavia, but Denmark is still doing better than Sweden. Putin has patiently built up his country for many years while our politicians only administer the decay. The list of things falling apart is very long.

“Fanden hytter sine”. True and we have a similar saying.

It is nice to meet a fellow Scandinavian on the blog. There are indications we are not alone. Many years ago I passed through Copenhagen six times one year and learned some Danish.

Venstre, Norwegian Progress party, and the Swedish Moderate party – typical pro anglo/nato parties- they all follow the same path, dismantle the brilliant welfare system, create prudish anglo type Social Conservatism around things Europeans have historically no problem with eg nudity, encourage a property and speculation boom, create Russophobia, reward the mostly rightist voting old people loads of benefits just for being old, tell young people they will have to work hard all their lives but still have lower living standards, and most of all tell the people they must do whatever the Anglo Saxons want.

since this part of the thread is already OT, I’ll chip in some OT stuff as well: The dismantling of the welfare system seems to happen everywhere in Western countries. Germany isn’t much different. The huge trade surplus is built on stagnation of wages and continuing automation. All the while the state is cutting back the welfare system (in order to keep public debt from rising), cutting the financing of universities, cutting the financing of infrastructure, etc. For a short while German Social Democrats seemed to really care about workers, but this situation slowly started (unnoticed) to change in the mid 70’s, during the period of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Since then the party moved continuously to the right and isn’t recognizable any more. With Hollande the French got a fake social democrat as well. Macron’s La République en Marche Syriza is a similar scam. Syriza is only left on paper.
The most pervert aspect of the whole situation is that people who had fled the imperial wars of the West are used as the new scapegoat to blame everything that goes wrong on them.
Regarding the old people I would like to chip in that the old people can be identified as mainly politicians, lawyers, the “financial industry” (who’re putting their hands into the money stream each time a money transfer occurs), public relations companies / MSM (propaganda), and the military. The aforementioned list includes active and retired people of the respective fields of work. Most other old people try to support their family/relatives as best as they can.

The whole system has to change, otherwise we’ll face really rough times ahead. A while ago I came up with three possible scenarios. Since everything is connected to the banking system, a financial crisis will probably be the trigger for one of those scenarios:

1. Accelerating the confrontation with the Russian Federation, which probably will lead to a war.
2. Causing the dissolution of the EU, whilst right (neo-liberal and national) parties close borders and sooner or later provoking a military conflict of neighboring countries.
3. Provoking a civil war of atheists / Christians against the Muslim population in order to safe the asses of the money changers. Divide et impera, otherwise if atheists / Christians can’t be agitated against Muslims, the confrontation would be haves against have-nots. If case 3 doesn’t work out, point 1 or 2 seem to be viable alternatives.

“although Mods here at The Saker has a Dim view on other commenters trying to state origin of fellow commenters, I find it relevant because it tells where other peoples reference sphere is.”Den Lille Abe: You have completely misunderstood and here, misrepresented the moderator’s comment regarding “origins of fellow commenters”. This statement is completely out of context with the original mod note and the thread it pertains to. The note was merely to redirect the dialogue back to the topic of the article. I suggest you review the original statement in its context to clarify why it was inserted.

Did I hear Mr. Cohen correctly? “I’m married to Katrina vanden Heuvel…”?

How very interesting. I didn’t know that. Somebody above mentioned KVH “interning” at the Nation. I don’t know about “interning”, she owns the thing now. Her wiki is interesting. The Nation’s history is interesting. I don’t know how much they had to do with the Committee(s) on Cultural Freedom (e.g. The Partisan Review, Encounter, etc.), but I suspect their funding these days is as interesting as KVH’s CFR membership. Which brings us to:

Thank God that Stephen Cohen is married to KVH. She must know what he knows, and tell her friends and collegues. A ray of hope!

Once I would listen to Radio National. However since it has had ex Murdoch/Google flunkie Michelle Guthrie dismantling it and turning it gradually towards a more right learning neocon/neoliberal mouthpiece I now just listen to interviews and reports of interest after they’ve aired.

As for Russia’s ‘coverage in Autralia, Prof Cohen isn’t far wrong, hence my visits here and to other blogs, less mainstream and even direct source material for news and information.

“To turn enemies into neutrals, neutrals into partners, partners into friends and friends into allies”, should be the goal of all statesmen. Sadly the US model includes selling vast amounts of military kit everywhere which isn’t part of peaceful coexistence.
Putin is proving to be a remarkable man. The west hasn’t produced anyone of his caliber in a very long time.

The West does not have many democracies with leaders that represent the people. Most Western ‘democracies’ (if not all) are controlled by the elite, who treat the nation as if they are their peasants. Patriot people do exist; but they are not accepted by the elite, who needs corrupt politicians to do the dirty job for them.

OffGuardian has published the official declaration of VVP’s income for 2011-16. It’s worth circulating just as a small antidote to the evidence-free claims of massive personal wealth. Of course it doesn’t prove anything, but still…

Arch Getty is the most honest and courageous expert on Russia and the Soviet Union. Cohen is the best protected.

The pattern of the kills ascribed to Putin jumps out at us, if we look. People are killed AFTER they have been wrung dry by enemy press and intelligence services and they have no more to give up.

If Putin was going to kill Litvinenko, or have him killed, it would have been done with 24 hours of their first meeting in his office, BEFORE he defected.

When Litvinenko died, which may have been a work-related accident, he was an empty vessel as far as Russia went. It was Berezovsky, from whom he was recently estranged, on whom he held a warehouse full of incriminating information.

Putin is running for re-election for president of Russia as an independent and not with the increasingly unpopular corrupt neoliberal United Russia party. Meanwhile the resurgent Communist party of Russia has a new presidential candidate Pavel Grudinin. While Putin will easily win re-election the Russian Communists are set to be the most popular party again soon.

Sitemap

Saker Android App

An Android App has been developed by one of our supporters. It is available for download and install by clicking on the Google Play Store Badge above.

All the original content published on this blog is licensed by Saker Analytics, LLC under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). For permission to re-publish or otherwise use non-original or non-licensed content, please consult the respective source of the content.